So Simple
by milkmoth
Summary: It was so simple, yet so important. He couldn't ignore it any longer. NejixTen


"Neji?"  
"Mmm?"

She looked up at him. Her eyes begged, pleaded, but he didn't understand. He never understood. He didn't know what she wanted, what she was asking for.

It all started with her saying his name. Every day. As if she had something important to tell him.

He would respond. But she would never reply, never tell him what she had to say. She broke her gaze, looked down at the floor. Tenten was unsure of herself, a rare thing.

"Tenten," Neji pressed, irritated. The first few times he hadn't noticed the repeated incident, but soon it had begun to bother him. What could she possibly want to say, but not say? Unlike him, Tenten was one for storytelling and rambling. And she always spoke her mind.

"It's nothing," she said, a bit lighter now. She smiled at him, then hesitantly took his hand. Normally he would've objected to such a thing, but he was distracted right now.

She tugged him out of the shop, where they'd just bought the medicine for Lee. Tenten shook the bag in her free hand, and there was a rustling sound.

"Lee always over-exerts himself," she said crossly, disapprovingly. Neji felt the corners of his mouth turn up. Tenten was always so motherly, especially when it came to Lee. She could be irresponsible, almost flightly, but when it came to her friends she was the most responsible person Neji could think of.

"Tenten," Neji said, not letting her get away with changing the subject, "what is it that you want to tell me?"

"I told you," she said, making a point of not meeting his eyes, "that it was nothing."

She pulled her hand back. Neji wouldn't let go.

Tenten's eyes lit up. "Give my hand back!" she said playfully.

He smirked, deciding to play her game. "Don't want to," he said.

She made of show of looking peeved, though she was smiling. "Fine, do what you'd like. But we need to go take this ointment to Lee."

Neji chuckled. He grew serious.

"Tenten," he said, on the verge of begging now, "tell me!"

Tenten froze. From the look in her eyes, Neji saw that she was contemplating it.

She smiled thoughtfully. "Nah. I can't. I think it's something you should figure out on your own. If you don't, it won't mean anything."

Neji gave out a small 'humph' but didn't say anything more. Or else it would be begging, and Hyuugas didn't beg. Especially not him. He dropped her hand.

Tenten, as she often did in her attempt to change the topic, had gotten overly involved in the new topic.

"… I told him he shouldn't, you know? But he had to. He just had to-" She paused. "Why'd you let go?"

"Wha-"  
"Of my hand, you doofus!" she exclaimed jokingly. Tenten was the only one who could call Neji 'doofus', even in jest.

She didn't wait for an answer. Without missing a beat, Tenten took his hand and continued.

"- go and do that quadruple flip after 300 laps around the field and 5,000 jumps over that jump rope. I think Gai-sensei works him too hard sometimes don't you? Neji?"

"Yeah," he said simply. He was actually quite content to just listen to Tenten ramble on and on about something. It was somehow comforting. All he had to do was listen and say something here and there. Tenten seemed to like it.

She rambled on for a few more minutes, until Lee's house was in view.

She clucked her tongue, another of her funny, maternal habits. "He should've just gone to the hospital for a few days," she noted.

They knocked on the door. Lee – with a broken leg and cuts all over his body (after he'd tripped he'd fallen into a thorn patch near their training area that also happened to house some stray kunai and shuriken) opened the door and somehow managed to greet them with a good guy pose.

The two sweatdropped. Tenten offered him the ointment.

"For you cuts," she said, concerned, "oooh, they look so nasty! I hope they'll heal all right!" She prodded gently at Lee's gashed skin.

Lee smiled heroically. "Do not worry, Tenten! I am strong. I don't need the ointment!"

Neji rolled his eyes. That was Lee, trying to act cool in front of their female teammate.

"You will use the ointment," Tenten said, her voice dangerous.

"But, Gai-sensei says –"  
"Use it!" she commanded loudly, pushing it into his hands.

Neji smiled. Tenten was the only girl he could think of who could convince people to do whatever she wanted. She could even convince Lee to disobey Gai-sensei.

They visited for Lee with a while, but they left soon after (Tenten claimed that Lee needed a full nine hours of sleep if he was to recover in optimal time).

"The nights are starting to get longer," he remarked as they trudged home. It was already after nightfall. He was going to drop Tenten off, first. As a Hyuuga, he'd been taught that chivalry was not nor would ever be dead.

Neji realized that Tenten wasn't next to him anymore. He turned around.

She was just standing there, looking up at the sky. Staring at the darkness, the stars, the moon.

"I like the stars," she said peacefully.

He smiled. This was his favorite thing about Tenten: she was so sweet, so kind. She was peaceful. She noticed little things like how pretty the stars were, or what kind of mood he was in.

"They are," he whispered, savoring the moment.

She looked at him, and her eyes had that pleading look in them again.

"But they're not as pretty as the moon," she told him honestly, "because the moon reminds me of you. It reminds me of your eyes."

He just looked at her for a moment. He suddenly realized what that pleading look all this time had meant: she wanted him to love her. She wanted his love.

This sudden realization shocked him. He could be so observant, but this had slipped by his notice.

Or perhaps he simply hadn't wanted to notice it. If he recognized it, their friendship might crumble. And he valued their friendship above all else. But he couldn't ignore it now…

"I love you," Tenten whispered. The whisper sounded through the night.

There was a long, drawn out pause. Neji could see what would happen next.

"Do you love me, too?"

And Neji was prepared. He had an answer for her. He'd known it all along.

He took a deep breath.

It was just one word.

So simple.

Yet so important.

It had to be said.

"Yes."


End file.
